Conventional video processing electronics inside a video camera moves frame data from a sensor to a buffer as the frames are created. The frame data is later moved from the buffer to a controller for processing. In some situations, such as at startup, partial frames are created and subsequently stored in the buffer. Since the partial frames are considered unusable, the controller has to identify and eliminate the partial frames from the buffer. In other situations, new frames are created faster than the controller can process the existing frames already in the buffer. Therefore, the controller suspends processing of a current frame and overwrites an older buffered frame with the newest frame. The partial frame elimination and frame overwriting can be costly and time consuming to the controller.